The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Mary Moody Northen Theatre, St. Edward's University, April 11 - 21, 2013

by Michael Meigs


The delightful wit and frivolity of Oscar Wilde's conceit for this play and the immense seriousness his characters apply to it make The Importance of Being Earnest an enduring favorite. This is the fourth staging of the work in the region since I began writing about theatre nearly five years ago, and it never grows stale. Wilde is not Shakespeare, but his work has a similar vitality and adaptability. His razor-sharp teasing of a distinct sector of English society seems bright and new each time I see it, and the actors deliver it with refreshingly personal modulations.

Richard Robichaux casts this piece deftly and well, neatly pairing companion roles. As the devil-may-care Algernon and his slightly priggish friend Jack, Josean Rodriguez and Jon Richardson differ in aspect and attitude, but they're really alike as two peas in a pod (or perhaps as two babes in a bassinet, which is eventually more to the point). 

Josean Rodriguez

They've mastered both the vowels and the rhythms of that insufferable upper-class "U" talk and they radiate confidence and self-satisfaction, just as two promising young men-about-town should do. Faculty member Sheila Gordon is credited as dialect coach, and she's done a cracking good job with everyone on stage.

The eligible young ladies offer another finely modulated pair. Hannah Marie Fonder as Gwendolyn has the precisely controlled chill of the very best of society, and her ice-cream elegance plays well against Sophia Franzella as Cecily, the energetic young brunette on the estate who's bored with her German lessons and eminently ready to escape if only a suitor should come calling.

And though they're not paired in the play, Barbara Chisholm and Robert Faires are paired in real life, and they provide quite different comic portrayals that are informed, vivid and veresimilar. I've carried in memory for years the aged Dame Edith Evans' haughtily crushing portrayal of the no-nonsense Lady Bracknell in a filmed version, and I was intrigued to see how Chisholm would manage one of the most adamantly comic characters of the stage. The answer, in short, is that she carries it off superbly. This Lady Bracknell is no oldie and by no means is she sexless; Chisholm delivers the ferociousness, the conviction and the dame's completely unapologetic snobbishness. And she's attractive, to boot; the wonderfully towering chapeaux provided by costume designer T'Cie Mancuso are so much a part of the character that one imagines them completely inseparable from the personality.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Austin Playhouse, January 14 - February 13

This "Trivial Comedy for Serious People" opened in 1895 and it was the last shining moment for Wilde's career as writer and dramatist. Soon afterwards he found himself in court, accused of immoral behavior and then sentenced to gaol. Because of that scandal the original production closed after only 86 performances. Since then it has become one of the most dependable and regularly revived comic satires on the boards.

Wilde's earnest young men show themselves of strenuously conventional Victorian morality in society but entirely subversive in their private lives.

Both Algernon Moncrieff (Jason Newman) and Jack Worthing (Benjamin Summers) have secret identities. Algernon goes "Bunberrying," using the excuse of a mythical ailing relative to escape from unappealing social engagements and to sail off on devil-may-care exploits.

Jack uses the excuse of his mythical brother "Earnest" to get away from the tedium of the country and the responsibilities of his guardianship for the fetching but bubble-headed Cecily, his ward and the daughter of his deceased benefactor. Masquerading as "Earnest" while in London, Jack is courting Algy's cousin Gwendolen.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Importance of Being Earnest, Austin Playhouse, January 14 - February 13

Received directly:

presents Oscar Wilde’s

The Importance of Being Earnest:

A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

Directed by Don Toner

Featuring Rick Roemer as Lady Bracknell and Bernadette Nason as Miss Prism

January 14 – February 13; Thursday–Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.

Austin Playhouse, 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C

www.austinplayhouse.com and on Facebook and Twitter

TIX: $26 Thursday and Friday, $28 Saturday and Sunday, $35 Opening Night

Can be purchased at the box office 512.476.0084 or online at: www.austinplayhouse.com

To become a subscriber: call 512.476.0084

Austin Playhouse produces Oscar Wilde’s light effervescent comedy The Importance of Being Earnest. Written in 1884 and first produced the following year, The Importance of Being Earnest is directly influenced by Great Britain’s late Victorian era. Wilde continuously makes light of the era’s mores, social customs, marriage, and particularly the pursuit of love.

The play features Jack, who is a seemingly responsible and respectable young man; but Jack leads a double life. At his country estate, Jack is known as Jack, but in the city, he is known as Ernest. Even Jack’s best friend Algernon who has known him for years, thinks he is Earnest. As Jack begins to fall in love with a woman who believes his name is Earnest, he finds himself in peculiar and amusing situations.

The Importance of Being Earnest has been considered Wilde’s artistic breakthrough—combining self-parody and a humorous commentary on the melodramatic genre in which he had already had so much success.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .